Nurse Midwife

Career Overview
Nurses can become a Certified Nurse Midwife and expand their professional role by providing primary care for women and their newborns. The skills, knowledge, and expertise acquired during nursing education are a solid foundation for a career in nurse-midwifery. A certified nurse-midwife (CNM) is qualified to manage prenatal, delivery, and postpartum care. CNMs are also able to provide most of the primary care, family planning and gynecological needs of women throughout the lifespan.

Nurse Midwife Employment Opportunities
For a registered nurse looking for adventure and new ways to impact health, public health nursing can offer an attractive,
stimulating career. PHNs work at the federal, state and local level, creating conditions to make people healthy. They work
in a variety of settings from community-based preventive health services in urban
areas, to remote Alaskan villages improving the health of Native Americans.
Internationally, public health nurses may
be part of a World Health Organization
team identifying health problems and
finding solutions. Or, they may be teaching families how to prevent the spread of
HIV/AIDS and working to improve sanitary conditions in small villages.>> Click to see Community/Public Health Nurse Career Settings and Titles.

Below are more common Public Health Nurse work settings:

Local government and health departments

Hospitals

Health and community organizations

Schools

Local clinics and community health centers

Qualifications for Public Health Nurse
RNs who are interested in becoming a PHN, must have basic nursing education at the baccalaureate level. To advance in the
field of public health, a master's degree in
public health, public health nursing, or
community health is needed. To participate in research, teach at the university
level, and to qualify for research grants in
public health, a doctorate in public health
or a related field is necessary. There are
also several subspecialties of public health
such as epidemiology and community
health planning that provide opportunities to advance in specific areas. PHNs can also sit for the Advanced Public Health Nurse (APHN-BC) certification exam provided by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).

Public Health Nurse Career Outlook
According to the US BLS, 5,300 nurse midwives were employed in 2014. By 2024, jobs are expected to grow 25%. Demand for community and public health nurses is high and should remain strong. The need for public health nurses is kept high by factors such as a growing senior population, more uninsured and underinsured patients, and continuing efforts at disease prevention.